Anger was directed not only at the Iraqi government but at Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, who is refusing to sign the execution order of three cohorts of Saddam Hussein sentenced to death for the killing of thousands of ethnic Kurds in the so-called Anfal (Spoils) campaign of 1988.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as "Chemical Ali" for his use of poisonous gas against Kurds; Sultan Hashim al-Tai, Saddam's defence minister; and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, his armed forces deputy chief of operations, were sentenced to death on June 24.

Under Iraqi law they were supposed to have been executed by October 4, 30 days after their sentences were upheld by the Iraq Supreme Court.

But because two members of the presidential council -- Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni -- have refused to sign the execution orders, the sentences have yet to be carried out.

"The three should be executed immediately to avoid calling into doubt the credibility of Iraqi judiciary," said Muhsin Rasheed, 35, who lost more than 25 members of his family in the Anfal killings.

He said 15 Kurdish civil organisations had sent letters to Talabani urging him "to take a decisive stance against the delay in performing the executions."

Talibani's declarations that the sentence of Sultan Hashim should be commuted amounted to "trespassing on the rights of Anfal's victims," added Rasheed, who heads a committee defending the rights of victims.

The United States, which is holding Chemical Ali and the two other convicts, has said it will not hand them over for execution until the legal row is settled.

Talabani, who is opposed on principle to the death penalty, has repeatedly come out in defence of Sultan Hashim.

"This man does not deserve execution," he said last month. "He was a capable and excellent officer who implemented Saddam Hussein's strict orders. He could not disobey orders."

Vice President Hashemi fears that the execution of Sultan Hashim could undermine already stuttering reconciliation efforts in post-Saddam Iraq.

The vice president, too, argues that Sultan Hashim, a career military man, had little choice but to follow orders from Saddam.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters Saturday that the issue was in the hands of the High Court, whose decision would be binding.

The court, he said, had to decide whether the approval of the presidential council is needed, and if so, what is the legal situation if this is not granted.

"The constitution is silent on this," he said, adding that the matter had been complicated further because the 30-day period in which the men were to have been hanged had come and gone.

Asked whether the matter could be resolved soon, he replied, "The time frame has passed. Time is no longer important."

Abdul Rahman Faris, 50, who lost his wife, son and sister in Kifriyah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Sulaimaniyah, and who has been waiting 19 years to see justice done, has run out of patience.

"The executions (of Kurds) were carried out swiftly, but we now hear talk of pardons for those convicted in the Anfal killings," he said.

"If Kurdish leaders back pardons, we will not deal with them and will consider them to be just like the Baathists," he added, referring to members of Saddam's Baath party.

Ali Mahmoud, 44, in charge of a humanitarian organisation which monitors issues related to the Anfal slaughter, criticised the "unjustifiable political interference."

"We are planning to raise our voices in protest at the delay in carrying out the death penalty," Mahmoud told AFP.

Shazad Hussein, the head of the Anfal Women's Organisation in Razgari, 145 kilometres (90 miles) south of Sulaimaniyah, was also angry.

"We demand the death sentence be carried out without any delay," she said.